Breaking down Houston, BYU's Week 8 opponent

Houston's known for its quarterbacks, and it has a rising star in John O'Korn.

The true freshman had to step up after David Piland left the Temple game with a concussion. Piland has since left the program, citing his multiple concussions.

However, Houston's offense is in capable hands.

O'Korn has had an impressive début season, averaging 226 yards per game with 11 touchdowns and just one interception on the season. The BYU secondary will have its hands full trying to stop O'Korn on Saturday despite O'Korn's inexperience.

The secondary will have to keep a close watch on sophomore WR Deontay Greenberry. Greenberry leads the Cougars with 606 yards, and he has three games with 146 or more receiving yards this season. Junior WR Daniel Spencer is another dangerous target with four touchdowns on the season.

On the ground, the Cougars in Scarlet will turn to Ryan Jackson. While Jackson had two games with 100 yards or more rushing to start the season, he rushed for just seven against Memphis last week. Jackson and the Houston running game will have a difficult time moving the ball against Kyle Van Noy and BYU's front seven.

Good Offense, but against extremely weak competition. The toughest defense
Houston has faced was Memphis, traditionally a better than average defense
coupled with a terrible historic and current offense. Memphis held Houston to
247 yards and if it's horrid offense hadn't kept turning the ball
over, Memphis would have won.

Sagarin has Houston ranked at 56 with their SOS at 135th. BYU is ranked 24th
with an SOS of 25. Houston could be much better than 56 but hard to tell.
Sagarin's Predictor for BYU is 82.09 and 75.15 for Houston (including the
home field advantage). As long as BYU is not looking past Houston and
concentrates on beating Houston BYU should win.

The public thinks
BYU will win by nine as that is the point spread on betting sites.
Sportschatplace picks Houston to win by a "narrow margin" because of
home field advantage and Houston's expected turnover margin.

Should be a fun game to watch, if BYU can stop Houston's passing game and
not lose the turnover battle BYU should win and might even win big if Taysom and
team can duplicate their passing of the last few games!

BYU may not score many points in this game, but having watched 3 of
Houston's games so far, their offense is overated, as it has seemed pretty
average against poor opposition. As long as there are no Defensive touchdowns
scored by Houston I could see BYU shutting them out.